Report highlights S.C. education policy shortfalls

WALTER C. JONES

Thursday

Jul 1, 2010 at 4:39 PM

ATLANTA - Policymakers in South Carolina have ways they can improve the state's education by raising standards and raising teacher pay, according to a report released Wednesday by the Southern Regional Education Board.

The Atlanta-based board is funded by the 16 states in the Southeast, from Maryland to Texas. The biennial progress report it issued during its annual meeting compares each state to goals the 16 governors agreed to in 2002.

"South Carolina can be proud of its progress in education, but all policy-makers and education leaders in SREB states need to continue to make improving all points in the education pipeline a top priority," said SREB President Dave Spence on the report's release.

South Carolina did show improvement in a number of areas, such as the narrowing of the gap in test scores between white students and those who are black or those who come from poor families. The report also noted the state had the highest percentage in the country of eighth graders taking college-prep math.

At the same time, it criticized the Palmetto State for low standards for fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade math and reading. It concluded the standards were too low because a majority of South Carolina students are scoring at the state's threshold in those subjects but still falling far short of the national standard.

"We're suggesting that the state's academic standards may be set too low," said Alan Richard, editor of the SREB report. "One thing we want states to recognize is very few states have high enough standards."

South Carolina is joining with nearly every other state in developing a national curriculum for math and reading which could remedy this.

The report also zinged the state for having a lower percentage of highly qualified teachers in the schools with the most poverty. Having lower starting-teacher salaries than Georgia and North Carolina, according to the report, can't make recruiting them easy.

However, Mark Bounds, deputy superintendent, said South Carolina has one of the strictest measures for determining which teachers are considered highly qualified, making comparisons like the report uses difficult.

Still, uncompetitive pay could be a hurdle since recent budget problems have made teaching jobs less stable, with 1,400 positions cut this year and that many or more in the next.

"It's already more difficult to attract teachers to high-poverty, rural areas because salaries are lower," said Jim Foster, communications director of the SC Department of Education. "These drastic state budget cuts won't make that job any easier."

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.